The present subject matter relates generally to systems and methods for providing users with product information on products featured in video content, such as product placements. More specifically, the present invention relates to systems and methods for providing users product information during the viewing of video content by providing user interface elements that permit a user to easily identify integrated products and access further information about the products.
Product placement is an increasingly preferred approach to introduce customers to products in a more natural, low-pressure context than more explicit advertising. For that reason, product placement has become prevalent in commercial television programming and video content. However, television and movie viewers often lack an ability to learn information about the products integrated into the programming (“integrated products”). It would be ideal to provide information about integrated products to consumers while their interest is piqued.
Previous media players including product placements were generally developed primarily as content monetization solutions based on a cost-per-click model. Those media players often required a user to register product hotspot requests by a mouse click before any product information is displayed. These media players required users to discover product placements by trial-and-error by clicking on products in the video to determine whether integrated product data is present. Further, previous media players included a method of content indexing and linking to product information that restricted a user's ability to locate products wherever they appear in video and disrupted the user's viewing enjoyment.
Further, previous media players have poorly balanced the tradeoff between providing easy-to-access product information on integrated products and providing an enjoyable user interface for video content consumption. For example, previous media players provided mechanisms for passive discovery of integrated content, such as clickable hotspots, but lacked mechanisms for active discovery and browsing of integrated content. Additionally, where a user was aware of an integrated product, previous media players provided no mechanism to find the appropriate time frames in which the product appeared. Moreover, when a user wanted to search a particular scene for product hotspots, pausing the video was often required to prevent the integrated product from moving out of the video frame. Further, previous media players often would not include product browsing functions in full screen mode, and often would only provide limited product information lacking in additional product images and product information.
Accordingly, there is a need for systems and methods for providing users with product information during the viewing of video content by providing user interface elements that permit a user to easily identify integrated products and access further information about the products, as described herein.